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Your final fatal blow shatters the chest of the Ice Dragon Zashnor. It implodes with a deafening noise, like the simultaneous smashing of a thousand crystal chandeliers. The frosty wings and limbs become detached as the torso disintegrates upon the deck, and rapidly they melt into a milky cloud that engulfs the broken remains. For a few moments this opaque ball of mist churns and seethes until it loses the last fragments of its energy and is whipped away on the winds of the storm.

The Imperial Zlanbeast circles above the deck of the Silver Virixe, cawing incessantly. When it detects that its master has been destroyed, it emits a despairing shriek before flying off in a westerly direction, across to the far side of the Tkukoma Estuary and beyond.

Lying at your feet is the grey robed form of Zashnor, torn and lifeless. You draw back the hood of its robe and reveal its true form. Its distorted goat-like skull is semi-transparent allowing you to see its brain which is as dark as night. Two small straight horns protrude from its forehead and its eye sockets appear unnaturally black, as if they are two holes through which you can see into another plain of existence. It is exceedingly rare to look upon a Nadziran in its true form. You recall something that Supreme Master Lone Wolf told you about the Nadziranim, that when they are destroyed they are destroyed utterly; nothing at all remains of their bodies or spirit. Zashnor was clearly an exceptional Nadziran. There are rumours that a select few Nadziranim have returned to Magnamund by the grace of Naar and by life-draining necromantic rituals after having seemingly been destroyed. Mindful of this, you resolve that Zashnor shall never join their ranks.

Driven by an overwhelming instinct, you raise your Kai Weapon above your head and bring it crashing down upon the Nadziran’s loathsome skull. Your mighty blow sunders the translucent bone case, destroying it completely. Within moments of its destruction, the crushed remains of the skull and the entire skeletal carcass become a pungent black slime that bubbles and boils until all that is left are a ragged grey robe and a man-sized patch of scorched decking.

The thunder and lightning cease abruptly and the violent storm begins to abate. The winds die down and the torrential rain recedes until it becomes little more than light drizzle. Calm is slowly returning to storm ravaged Chai as the power of Zashnor relinquishes its foul grip on nature. After so many days of raging turmoil, the natural balance of the elements is finally being restored.

You close your eyes and offer up a prayer to God Kai for giving you the strength and courage to overcome this formidable foe. You are concluding your prayer when a riotous noise makes you open your eyes and focus your gaze on the quayside.

Turn to 107.